BY MELIHA GUTIC
Asst. A&E Editor
On September 22, “Gaga: Five Foot Two” became available to stream worldwide on Netflix.
The documentary follows around Lady Gaga and shows viewers a behind the scenes look of the production and release of her fifth studio, “Joanne.” It also showcases her health struggles that she deals with on a daily basis.
“I like Lady Gaga, but I was never really her number one fan. Watching her documentary, I had a new appreciation for her just because you can see that she is extremely passionate about what she does, and she doesn’t want to let her fans or her family down. I feel like she has a lot of pressure on her,” said senior McKenzie DeGroot.
Gaga has always been vocal about her physical and mental health struggles, and in the documentary, viewers get a sneak peek into who the real Lady Gaga is.
Things like going through a public break-up with her ex-fiancé, dealing with pain all over her body stemming from a hip injury years ago, and enduring spasms that at times leave her immobile. An outsider would never know these things because she never lets it show.
“I don’t really like Lady Gaga and I think I only got about half way through the documentary cause I wasn’t really into it. But it was enough for me to feel bad for her because I can’t imagine being in the constant pain that she always seems to be in,” said senior Alex Grobleski.
Just a few weeks ago, Gaga announced she was postponing the European leg of her world tour.
“Lady Gaga is suffering from severe physical pain that has impacted her ability to perform,” said tour promoter Live Nation to the Associated Press. “She remains under the care of expert medical professionals who recommended the postponement.”
Despite the negative aspect of her health, she got the opportunity to perform at Super Bowl LI. The documentary shows the process of her getting the gig as well as the production of the show. According to Gaga, she has been working her whole life up to this moment.
“It’s funny because I love football and the Super Bowl is the highlight of the year for football fans and I never realized how much goes into a halftime show. It’s just nothing I ever think of and of course it’s Lady Gaga so it was a huge production,” said DeGroot.
At the end of the documentary, her team said her performance was ”unbelievable,” and her single, “Million Reasons” was number one on the charts.
“I actually loved her performance at the Super Bowl, I was pleasantly surprised because she sang all her classics and her performance wasn’t super crazy, which was what I was expecting,” said senior Niki Perin.
Celebrity documentaries are becoming more and more popular, and continue to give fans the behind-the-scenes look that they seek. Just next month, Demi Lovato will have a documentary out on YouTube called “Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated.”
“Celebrity documentaries are always iffy to me, because I don’t know what to believe. It’s a documentary so you would think that it should be raw and honest, but they could still not be showing us something, or they may be fake for the camera,” said Grobleski.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
